January has been an incredibly quiet, productive month over here. Lots of great new projects happening, which I am excited to share soon as more come to completion. It has also been, obviously, a very troubling time for our country, so we have been spending an almost excruciating amount of time reading and listening to the news, and then using books, music, cooking and art as an antidote, which has been helpful.

I recently completed this chalk mural for Merit, a software company located in downtown Albany. They have one of the coolest offices I have ever seen. The reason they needed this created was because they were hosting Craig Finn, of The Hold Steady, playing a "living room" show in their space. He is a great storyteller and performer. It was one of those really rare, special nights in Albany where you know an event this intimate just wouldn't happen in a bigger city.

On to darker matters....

We attended a march the day after the inauguration here in Albany and it was amazing. Apparently, it was the largest turnout Albany's had for a rally in a very long time. I, of course, loved the opportunity to make some signs. Harrison had the idea for this Woody Guthrie quote on the left, and I wanted something a little more image based, on the right. I'm currently working on designs for some free/printable postcards for writing to elected officials. More on that soon.

Upstate Collage Night - the mobile art party I organize with Ira is happening on February 9 at The Tang, one of my favorite places in the 518. It's open to all. I love when we get to do Collage Night at these neat old colleges, walk around campus and pretend I'm 20 years old again.

We took a trip to Mass MoCA to check out the amazing Nick Cave installation. (Note, not Nick Cave of The Bad Seeds, a different amazing Nick Cave, learn more here). However, I was pretty taken by this much smaller, but still incredible exhibition by Sarah Crowner, called Beetle in the Leaves. You can walk on this brilliant tiled floor to get a close look at her dynamic, graphic paintings, which are made from individually sewn pieces of canvas that are then painting to form the compositions. This one really stuck with me.

I tore through this book more quickly than I thought I would, despite the heavy content. Planning to read Play It As it Lays, next.